The semiconductor integrated circuit (IC) industry has experienced exponential growth. Technological advances in IC materials and design have produced generations of ICs where each generation has smaller and more complex circuits than the previous generation. In the course of IC evolution, functional density (i.e., the number of interconnected devices per chip area) has generally increased while feature size (i.e., the smallest component (or line) that can be created using a fabrication process) has decreased. This scaling down process generally provides benefits by increasing production efficiency and lowering associated costs. Such scaling down has also increased the complexity of processing and manufacturing ICs and, for these advances to be realized, similar developments in IC processing and manufacturing are needed.
For example, lithography processes often use techniques such as optical proximity correction (OPC) and assist features, such as scatter bars, to improve and enhance the quality of an image on a mask that is to be exposed on a substrate. With shrinking feature sizes, such techniques become more complicated and difficult to perform, especially when fracturing or modifying the data to be imaged. The OPC and/or assist features may be lost or adversely modified during the scaling down process.
Accordingly, what is needed is a method and system to provide a quality assurance to facilitate the scaling down process and the use of techniques such as OPC and/or assist features.